Another Day Another Feral
by TurtleTrot
Summary: Brotherhood Knight Nina is sent to clear a building of feral ghouls but she ends up being in way over her head. Luckily she has her friends there to give her a hand.


**Author's Note:** This is just a one-shot. I'm not sure if I'll be writing more with my character, Nina. She is NOT the Sole Survivor.

OC x Paladin Danse and there shouldn't be any spoilers.

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Another day, another feral infested building. Normally Nina would go on an extermination like this alone but tonight was different. The office building that she had been assigned to cleanse was one of the largest feral dens she had ever seen. After scouting the area, and discovering the abnormally large amount of ferals, she headed back to the police station for some backup.

When she arrived back at the station she was surprised to see Paladin Danse there. She greeted him formally and he turned his attention to her.

"Knight, glad to see you're alright. I heard that you left without your armor."

"Right, it's being fixed up at the moment. I figured I've made it this far without it, what's one more night?" Danse narrowed his eyes at her reply. She knew he lived for the brotherhood and his second love was power armor.

"But I see it all worked out…" He said slightly annoyed. Knight Rhys came over and shook his head.

"There's no way you cleared that den already." He had his usual hateful tone and an even more hateful look on his face.

"You're right, I haven't cleared it. There are too many of them. I didn't even make it inside." Nina replied as gently as she could. She figured Rhys hated when she was friendly to him, so she did it as much as possible.

"How many did you see?" Paladin Danse asked her.

"I counted 27 just on the outside of the building. There's probably more inside." She answered.

"Or maybe none are inside." Rhys sneered. Scribe Haylen gently placed a hand on his shoulder and it seemed to calm him slightly.

"That does sound like a lot, even if there aren't any on the inside. Too many for one knight. Especially without her power armor." Haylen looked at Danse, waiting for his instructions.

"You're right." He agreed. "She's going to need backup." Danse grabbed his helmet from the counter and flipped it into the air, caught it, and placed it on his head. "We'll all go. Suit up." Nina looked at the other two and saw that they didn't look nearly as surprised as she was. Within five minutes the four of them were heading towards the ferals' office building.

Once they arrived it was a constant battle. Nina had been right, there were a lot more feral ghouls on the inside. Tight quarters and low visibility made the fighting even more difficult. For the most part, the four of them stuck close together, watching each other's backs. Until they came to a large meeting room where the floor had collapsed in the center. Danse held out an arm and stopped everyone in their tracks.

"The floor looks too unstable. My armor is going to be too heavy, I'll fall right through. Haylen, Nina." The girls stepped forward. "Walk around and check the doors on the sides, see if one of them will lead to another, more secure, path. Maybe one of them will lead to that chained door we passed not too long ago." They both nodded and went to their respective sides. They carefully shimmied along the wall, trying not to fall through the hole. It looked deep and dark, Nina couldn't see the bottom. Haylen reached her door first, it was unlocked and she stepped in to the room. There weren't any ferals as far as she could tell so she progressed further. Nina tried the knob on her door but it was locked. "I think I can pick it." She called to Danse. He gave her a nod and she pulled a bobby pin from her hair. She had just started to play with the tumblers when she heard Rhys call out.

"The hell is that?" Rhys was pointing at a glowing green light coming from the hole. Nina looked down just as a feral grabbed her leg. It had climbed up the hole and dug its nails into the back of her ankle. Her foot slipped and the two of them went crashing down.

She could hear her name being called as she tumbled down. One floor, two floors. She landed three floors down, on top of the feral. The landing knocked the wind out of her and she was fairly certain she had broken a rib. It took her a moment to realize just how bad off she was. Ferals were closing in all around, including a bright glowing green one.

Her laser rifle was still strapped to her back, probably what had cracked her rib, and she whipped it around as fast as she could, clicked off the safety and began shooting at the glowing ghoul from her position on the ground on top of the now dead ghoul. It seemed like no matter how many shots she fired at it, it just wouldn't die. Worse of all, it wouldn't stop coming towards her.

Several feet in front of her was the glowing feral, her eyes locked on to its bright form. She didn't notice the feral on her right until she felt teeth sinking into her leg. She screamed and kicked at the ghoul with her left leg but to no avail. He was latched on. She shot it once before another feral grabbed for her throat. Its nails tore into her skin as she threw herself backwards to try to escape from its grasp. She could feel the warm blood pouring down her neck but couldn't spare a thought on that. The other ghoul was determined to tear her leg off.

Several more ferals had swarmed her, each biting or clawing wherever they could reach. She fought with all her strength against them but there were too many and she was losing fast. Flashbacks were playing through her head from the night she had met Paladin Danse and lost all her friends, her family. She had lost everything that night; all the people that had taken her in when she was young and alone had been torn to shreds by ferals. As she was running she heard Danse, Rhys, and Haylen fighting against the same ferals that had just killed her friends and she changed direction and sprinted towards them. Danse had thought that she had come to help the Brotherhood with the ferals but really they were helping her. And now, she too was being torn to pieces by ferals. She supposed you could never really escape your fate. But she wasn't going down without a fight.

A loud, ground shaking, boom echoed through the room as Paladin Danse landed three floors down. He pulled the feral on Nina's leg off by the neck and slammed it against the wall before shooting it with his rifle. He pushed and pulled and shot all the ferals that were around her until she was able to grab her gun and help him fight them off. Again, it seemed, Paladin Danse had saved her. She would repay him for this one day, she vowed to herself.

After killing several ghouls, all that was left was the glowing one. Rhys and Haylen burst through the door and the four of them shot until it no longer moved. Rhys put a couple more bullets into its head as Haylen and Danse came to Nina's side.

Danse removed his helmet and set it on a knocked over desk near the three of them. He turned it so the headlight was shining on Nina. She was bloody all over and breathing heavily. Haylen helped her into a sitting position against a wall, carefully extending her right leg and lifting the torn cloth to get a better look at her wounds. Nina looked down at her leg. The blood drained from her face making her brown skin several shades paler. Large parts of her leg were torn almost completely off, and a large pool of blood was soaking the floor. The part that almost made her lose consciousness was the oddly white bone showing through all the blood.

Haylen swore under her breath and Rhys came over to look but quickly averted his eyes when he saw her leg. He too had gone several shades paler. The scribe pulled off her belt and made a tourniquet around Nina's thigh. Then proceeded to inspect her other wounds.

"She needs medical attention, now." Haylen looked sternly at Danse.

"Danse…" Nina said looking up at him. His thick brow was furrowed so tight that it almost looked like it was one long line.

"Rhys, search the upper floors for any kind of medical supplies. Haylen, you search the ground floor. I'll continue searching down here." Paladin Danse instructed his team and with a quick salute the two of them were off and searching leaving Nina and the increasingly panicked Paladin alone. "There has to be something around here, don't worry."

"I'm not." Nina said as she tried to adjust her leg. The slightest movement sent burning pain up her thigh. She gasped at the lava flowing through her. Danse put his helmet back on and began frantically searching for anything to ease the pain. As he searched he was rapidly moving further and further away from his wounded knight.

"Danse." Nina called out to him. He briefly looked over his shoulder.

"Don't move. I'll be right back." He said as he left the room. Nina shuddered as the sound of his heavy metal footsteps grew quieter. After falling through the floor and being almost eaten by ferals, the last thing she wanted right now was to be alone.

"Danse?" She cautiously called out. No reply. "Danse!" She yelled a little louder, her voice cracking. She took a deep shuddering breath, but still no reply. The only light in the room was from the dead glowing ghoul. She fought back a sob. Her fingers gently rubbed over her neck where a ghoul had tried to rip her throat out. Her eyes shot back to all the dead ghouls littering the floor and that was all it took. Adrenaline coursed through her body and she used the wall to pull herself up and onto her feet. She tried to take a step forward, however her right leg was all but useless.

Searching quickly she found a coat rack and used it as a makeshift crutch. As she hobbled towards the door she called out to the Paladin again. Hoping and praying that she wouldn't run into anymore ferals. The halls were pitch black. Her adrenaline was leaving her like ice running through her veins. "Danse." She called in a voice barely audible.

Her body was shaking from fear and exhaustion, legs threatening to give out at any second. There was no going back now, there was no going forward. All she could do was desperately cry out for help. As she called for her leader her voice sounded foreign, she had never heard herself sound so… defeated.

Within moments she could hear those familiar metal footsteps coming towards her. Before long there was a light coming from one of the doorways, then the giant suit of power armor came around the corner. Danse pulled off his helmet as he sprinted towards Nina, catching her in his arms just as she was about to collapse. His helmet fell to the ground.

"What do you think you're doing?!" He scolded but anger wasn't the only emotion present in his voice. "You shouldn't be up. I told you I would be right back." He continued to scold but Nina wasn't hearing any of it. He easily held her limp body, and she let him support her completely.

"Danse—" She tried to speak but he wouldn't let her.

"Do you have any idea the damage you could be causing by standing on that leg? Not to mention all the blood you've lost." Danse was trying to set her down so that she could sit and stretch her legs out again but Nina was fighting against him, trying her best to stay upright. "You need to rest. It's great that you want to continue the mission but you are badly injured."

"No, Danse—" She tried to speak again but he continued talking.

"It's my fault that you're like this… I shouldn't have let you come with us while your armor was being repaired. You weren't battle ready-" Nina twisted her body so that she was facing him and grabbed on to the handles attached to the chest of his power armor. Using the handles to pull herself up to his face she pressed her lips against his, effectively shutting him up.

Danse's eyes opened wide as she tenderly kissed him. He couldn't remember if he had ever been kissed before, but he didn't think he had. This was unfamiliar territory so he remained still, allowing Nina to take the reins. Kissing the paladin had been on her mind since they met and if it made him stop talking, bonus. After a moment she pulled her head away from his. Her hands were still firmly gripping his power armor, her arms straining to keep herself up.

"Hold me." She whispered.

"What?" Danse's expression still looked like a deer in the headlights. It would have been comical if she wasn't in so much pain.

"I'm going to fall. Hold me." She instructed. Automatically his arms wrapped around her and he scooped her up, bridal style. She let one arm drape around his neck while the other clutched at her ribs. One or two of them were definitely broken. "Please don't leave me." She blinked back the tears. She felt pathetic and stupid for crying in front of him. She was Brotherhood now, due to his recommendation, and she knew she was stronger than this. However, at the moment, being held in his arms felt like she was finally safe and she couldn't stop the tears from falling.

Danse was quiet for a while, letting everything that had just happened soak in. Finally he spoke in a quiet and calm voice. "I'm not going anywhere."


End file.
